Pay your tax's. So I don't have to pay mine.

On April 15 2013 -- or tax day, as we all know-- it made headlines that the White House had released President Obama’s tax records for 2012. This was met with a lot of criticism because on average, American workers like teachers or police officers pay a tax rate of about 30%. The Obamas only paid 18.4%.

 

In President Obama’s defense, he was charitable during the 2012 tax season. He and his wife donated $150,034, to 33 different charities. This means they gave away more to charity than they paid for taxes. This is a good thing but many have speculated that his charitable efforts were only amped up because it was election season.

Back when President Obama was still Senator of Illinois, he was making about $200,000 annually. At the time, he was only paying between $1470 to $3400 in charitable donations. It has only been in the last five years that he has attempted to make more sizable donations which only further raise suspicion about his motives.

Though his rate was only 18.4% during the 2012 tax season, the year before he paid only two percent more at 20.5%. A two percent decrease is bad enough but even worse because this is still less than the 25% he paid for 2010.

During the 2012 presidential election, President Obama called out Republican candidate Mitt Romney for talking about tax fairness while he did not pay his fair share. He cited their 2010 tax records which revealed that the Obamas paid 25% while the Romneys only paid 13.7% that year. He was commended on calling this out but it seems have been a hypocritical move considering his 2012 tax rate.

It is pretty well-known that the President of the United States makes $400,000 annually. In addition, President Obama makes extra income in compensation and book sales and none of this even includes the money First Lady Michelle makes from her business ventures. The two have their eggs in many baskets and are literally set for life so it is outrageous that they only had to pay $112,214 for 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Back on His Word

"Under the president's own tax proposals, including limitations on the value of tax preferences for high-income households, he would pay more in taxes while ensuring we cut taxes for the middle class and those trying to get in it," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

According to expert Jeff Mason, the Obamas' income was subject to 39.6% for the 2012 tax year. This is the top tax rate and it is exactly what the President has been preaching about when talking about high-income households paying their fair share. Even so, they somehow managed to avoid paying this.

Joe Scarborough of MSNBC was very outspoken about the hypocrisy of it all, saying, “this president, after dodging this issue for a year and a half, pays an 18% tax rate, which by the way is half of the tax rate that I pay. I would guess it’s half of the tax rate you pay... Barack Obama has been championing raising taxes on small business owners for years! And he is paying 18% in taxes because raising those taxes don’t affect him. And he talks about fairness?”

According to the Tax Policy Center, roughly 46% of Americans paid no federal income tax in 2011. This was because of most of them were elderly or too poor to pay in to federal and yet 2/3 of these same people had to pay into the federal employment taxes. Because of their pay into these areas, they help support Social Security and Medicare -- two vital programs to Americans that the Obama administration has shown little regard for -- and the salaries of government employees.

 

The White House released their proposed budget for 2014, it would include a new minimum tax for the wealthy known as the Buffett Rule. This was named after billionaire Warren Buffett, who got media attention when he complained that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary has to. The proposed tax rule would force high income households to pay an even tax rate. Fun fact: his secretary is a high income earner as well and the bit about her tax rates was fabricated.

With such a low rate paid (even including charitable deductions) some have speculated that the Obamas made much of their income from investment. The wealthiest taxpayers in the nation make most of their money from investments, but this was not the case for the Obamas and most of their income was taxed as salary.

White House press secretary Jay Carney posted a blog entry on April 12th that said "The president believes we must reform our tax system which is why he has proposed policies like the Buffett Rule that would ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share while protecting families making under $250,000 from seeing their taxes go up." But his recent proposals demonstrate otherwise.

Higher Tax Rate

It has recently been revealed that the budget Obama has in place will raise tax rates tremendously over the next ten years. On April 23 2013, it was revealed that this will be a problem not just for high-income families but everyone will suffer from the highest tax rates in the nation in more than 40 years!

Obama has made plans to give back 5% of his pay in 2013 as a gesture of solidarity with government workers. Many of the government workers are being made to take unpaid leave as a result of deep spending cuts that went into effect in March 2013. While this gesture doesn't set things right, it may be a sign that our Head of State has seen the error in his ways.